How Heavy Were Iron Age Bows?

[Sean Manning]

From Sumer to Rome data is taken from Canadian War Colleges Lectures, for the education of Officers taking war studies and simulation conflict courses.

No, the data on the energy generated by weapons in From Sumer to Rome is taken from a SCA-grade back yard test involving the authors and one (!) unnamed test subject. Lots of people without critical thinking skills use their made-up numbers.

Soldiers are not trained in experiment design or how to evaluate historical sources. That is not their job! Unfortunately, they often get fooled by pseudoscience like the books by Killology Grossman which seems 'useful'. I think one of the authors of From Sumer to Rome teaches at a staff college so can get their made-up numbers into circulation because people trust him.

This is why in science (like my science of history) we never appeal to popularity or unjustified authority.

Edit: the description of their experiment is on page xix and its just fractally amateurish from the single subject to the insertion of a random 1/g into the formula for kinetic energy to the assumption that a weapon in hand is just like a projectile and only the mass of the weapon contributes to the energy https://books.google.ca/books?id=6sAftYT...&q&f=false In the 1970s we did not know much about how to model low-tech arms and armour but using this book today is a very bad idea!